Missing
by Trini08
Summary: Four of the most influential and powerful people in Eureka were missing.  And Fargo.
1. Chapter 1

I know, I havent updated my other Eureka story. But this one popped into my head while rewatching the Ex-Files on Hulu, for the fourth time. What can i say, hallucination!Zane was sexy! But anyway, i was thinking about what's happening in our timeline, while they are stuck in the new timeline. I didnt like the idea of the other Jo, Carter, Allison, Fargo and Henry taking the places our Jo, Carter, Allison, Fargo and Henry. So instead, i have them missing from our timeline. its a Zane-based fic. I dont mean to be bashing Fargo, but i dont think our Zane likes him much better than the new Zane does.

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Zane was pissed. Actually, pissed was putting it lightly. He couldn't believe she would do this to him. First, she had frozen and not answered when he proposed, then she just ran away. Zane had never thought Jo would be a coward and run away from town just because he'd proposed and _she_ wasn't ready. She was the one who'd gotten mad at him for not saying "I love you" and not being ready to take their relationship further. So when he _was_ finally ready, and he'd gotten up the courage to ask her to marry him, she'd frozen and then left. Yeah, he had every right to be pissed.

After he'd stormed from the Sheriffs Office, he'd gone to his lab, trying to work on his latest project. When he couldn't focus on that, he went for a walk and ended up at Café Diem. Zane thought about going in for a moment, but then he figured that Jo might have been in there, having a coffee or something, so he decided against it. Zane kept walking and found himself in front of his old apartment. He'd moved into Jo's house several months ago, a short time after their "make-up dinner". He knew that so far, no one had moved in, so he decided to go in. During those first few months dating Jo, after he'd started spending the night at her place because it was bigger and she didn't have a neighbor on the other side of the wall complaining when they made too much noise, Zane had come here for some alone time. They both respected the fact that, occasionally, they needed time away from each other. Zane spent a few hours just sitting around, trying to clear his mind. After he'd felt calm enough to confront Jo, he'd called her cell phone first. No answer. He called the house. No answer. He called the office. Again, no answer. So he went looking for her, determined that she could not ignore him after this mornings events.

He started at the office, where he'd left her after the failed marriage proposal. He was somewhat shocked to see all of his things still in the cell, untouched. He thought she would have certainly torn everything down. But still, she wasn't here, and nothing looked like it had been moved in the entire place since this morning. Odd. Next he went to look for her at Cafe Diem. She wasn't there either. He looked at the gym, the shooting range and even his own lab, thinking maybe she had gone there to wait for him, to maybe apologize. She wasn't at any of those places. He swung by Café Diem on his way home to grab something to eat. After ordering his food, he figured that if anyone in this town would know where Jo was, it would be the town gossip, Vincent. Unfortunately, he hadn't seen here since she came by that morning for coffee. And that led Zane to now, as he stood in the middle of their living room, pissed.

The food he'd picked up had long since gone cold, sitting on the dinning room table. He'd already gone around the house, and everything seemed to be in the place it should be. So it seemed, that Jo had left town and left _everything_ behind, not just him. And that fact had just proved to make him even madder. Did she think that she could just forget about her life here? Forget everything they had meant to each other? He decided for one last try to find her. He called Carter's house. The two were close; the entire town knew Carter thought of Jo as family. Maybe she'd gone to stay with him to get away from everything that happened that morning. Unfortunately Carter didn't answer, Sarah did. Zane asked her if she'd seen Jo and Sarah had told him that she hadn't. She also hadn't seen Carter since he'd left for work that morning. Now things were getting strange. Not only was Jo missing but so was Sheriff Carter. Zane started to wonder who else was missing, and the more he thought about it, he hadn't seen Dr. Blake at GD when he was there, nor had he seen Fargo. He hadn't seen them as he'd walked through the exhibits in town for Founders Day, either. He'd also seen the antique car that Henry had been working on, but hadn't seen Henry himself. He'd also heard from Vincent that Henry hadn't shown up to give his speech, though Zane had to admit, he'd kind of stopped listening after he heard that Vincent hadn't seen Jo.

Zane went to the kitchen and pulled a notebook out of a drawer and started writing down a rough timeline of the last time people were seen in town. Jo was last seen in the office, Carter had been over heard saying that he was going for a run before setting up security for the Founders Day exhibits. Fargo had seemed to mysteriously disappear after running off to change clothes after spilling coffee on himself. Henry had been seen talking to Grace, the lady who organized Founders Day and whose car he was fixing, then he slid under the car to fix something and no one actually saw him come out. And Dr. Blake had gone home to leave her children with the nanny, and according to him, she had never returned from work. Four of the most influential and powerful people in Eureka were missing, and Fargo. Now Zane was really worried.

He sat at the table, shocked. He had no idea what to do, had no idea who to call. The last person he wanted to call was General Mansfield; Zane figured the man would probably blame him for this. Not that Zane could fault the man for that; he did have a criminal record after all. But that didn't mean that everything that went wrong in town was his fault, there were other untrustworthy people in town. Take Fargo's girlfriend for example. Zane could call the old Sheriff, he had never met the man, but maybe the guy could help figure this out. Nah. No, instead Zane figured he'd call the only other person he knew to ever hold the title of Sheriff, the robot Andy.

"This is Andy speaking." Answered the ever cheery and rather creepy voice.

"Hey, Andy, it's Zane Donovan from Eureka." Zane replied.

"Ah, Mr. Donovan, hello. I hope that everything is going well in town. I am rather enjoying my vacation." The robot replied.

"Actually, its not, we're having a slight issue here in town. Carter, Jo, Dr. Blake and Henry Deacon are all missing. Oh, and Fargo, too. They all went missing this morning and no one has any idea where they went." Zane told him, leaving out the thing about the failed proposal.

"Oh dear. That's not good, who is running the town?"

"Well, no one right now, they've only been gone for less than a day, but we're gonna need someone to run things if we can't find them soon. I need you to get back here to help with the investigation. You're the best person I can think of for the job." Zane said, hoping to convince the AI to return to the town.

"Well I am honored that you would think that Mr. Donovan. I shall return as soon as possible. However, my programming is not designed for me to lead the entire town. I am merely programmed for law enforcement." Andy replied.

"Well, right now, I'll take any help I can get." Zane said, hanging up the phone. He sighed and buried his head in his hands. This was not going to be fun. He knew that he had one more person to call, and this wasn't someone he looked forward to talking to about this problem in town. Zoë Carter.

Zane dialed the number for her cell; it rang a few minutes before a sleepy Zoë answered. Zane silently cursed himself for forgetting the time difference between here and Boston.

"Hello?" He heard Zoë ask again.

"Hey Zoë, its Zane." He said, trying not to sound too anxious.

"Hey. Why you calling so late? Is something wrong?" She asked, her voice sounding concerned.

"I….I don't know how to tell you this, but…. You're dad's missing." He told her, and there was a long stretch of quiet. He was about to ask if she was still there when he heard her speak again.

"I'm catching the next flight home."


	2. Chapter 2

Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. I'd hoped to end it differently, but it kept getting longer so i decided to cut it here and have the next chapter end where this one was supposed too. Enjoy.

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Zane had tried to sleep that night; he knew it would take Zoë a while to get a flight to Oregon from Boston. He knew that wherever Andy was coming from it would probably take him a while to get back to town as well. So Zane had tossed and turned all night. He'd been surprised at how fast he had gone from completely pissed at Jo to being completely overwhelmed with guilt and worry. He could think of nothing else but her, if she was ok, if she was even alive. He thought of only her and how to get her back. Soon enough it was morning and he knew the town would be tearing itself apart without its leaders and law enforcement there to hold it together. Zane just wanted to stay in bed, the bed he shared with Jo, the bed where her scent still clung to her pillow. He was jolted out of his reverie by a sharp knocking on the door. He staggered out of bed to answer and found Andy standing there.

"Hello, Mr. Donovan. You look terrible this morning." Andy said, with that eerie persistent smile and cheery voice. Zane simply scowled at him and motioned for him to come into the house. As Andy settled himself on the couch, Zane went to the bedroom to change into regular clothes and freshen up. When he returned to the living room, Andy was sitting in the exact same spot. Creepy.

"Andy." Zane said, getting the robots attention. "Have you thought about what I told you last night?"

"Yes, I have Mr. Donovan. And I am happy to aid in the search for your missing colleagues. When was the last time they were seen?" Andy asked, watching Zane as he moved to sit in the chair across from the couch.

"All of them were seen yesterday morning." Zane answered. "They weren't all seen in the same place, but all around the same time."

"I see. Which of them did you see last, Mr. Donovan?" Andy asked. Zane was starting to get annoyed by this robot calling him by his last name. It made him feel like he was being interrogated again.

"I saw Jo and Carter in the Sheriffs Office. And call me Zane."

"Ok Zane. Did anything strange happen while you were talking to Deputy Lupo or Sheriff Carter?"

Zane hesitated at this question. He wasn't sure if it was considered strange that Jo hadn't said yes. Then again, he really didn't want this AI knowing about his personal life.

"No, nothing strange, exactly. I got in a fight with Jo and Carter walked in afterwards, when I was leaving." Zane replied, it wasn't exactly a lie. They hadn't fought, really, but the truth was too hard to explain.

"Do you know of anyone else who might have seen them after you, Zane?" Andy asked and Zane sighed. He knew that he'd have to go back into town and he knew who he'd have to talk to.

"Vincent might know who saw them all last. He told me about how Henry never showed for his speech yesterday. He seems to know the most about the goings on in this town." Zane replied. Just as he finished his phone rang. It was Zoë.

"Hey Zoë, did you get a flight?"

"Yeah, I'll be in Portland at 11, and then I'll catch a bus to town. Any news about my dad?" She asked

"No, nothing so far. Let me know when you get to the bus station, I'll come get you." Zane replied, hoping like hell he could have some answers for her when she finally got her. He glanced at his watch; it was only 8:30. He sighed and ran a hand over his face. People would be showing up for work at GD soon, if not already there, and they'd be wondering where the director was. He turned back towards Andy.

"Alright. Andy, can you go talk to Vincent at Café Diem and find out what he knows? Maybe he can help us pinpoint the exact time everyone disappeared. I'm going to head to GD, maybe someone there was working on an experiment that caused all this and I can figure out how to fix it." Zane said, surprised at how well he took charge of the situation at hand. He had never thought of himself as a leader, he'd always liked being on the outside, mostly relying on himself to get what he wanted, what he needed. Then he smiled, that was all until he'd come to Eureka, until he'd met Jo. She really was the best thing to happen to him, and he knew that he could wait forever for her to be ready to marry him. But first, he needed to find her. He watched as Andy headed off to Café Diem and then Zane got into his own car and headed for GD.

Once he got there, he noticed that nothing seemed wrong. A few people were in their labs or milling around in the rotunda. Zane figured they all must just be thinking that Dr. Blake was running late. She did have two kids to take care of, after all. He went to his own lab, and started flipping through the files he could access on the different GC projects. Sure, he didn't technically have access to most of these, but once a hacker, always a hacker. He stayed away from Section 5 projects and anything too classified. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself or the town. Then he'd have to try to explain the disappearances to the DOD and Mansfield. None of them seemed to be anything that could cause five people to just disappear with no one seeing anything. Zane considered checking the section five projects, but he decided against it until he found it necessary to tell General Mansfield about the situation. He checked his watch and saw that it had taken him almost 3 hours to review the projects. He knew that Zoë would be landing in Portland soon and decided to check and see what Andy had found out.

Arriving at Café Diem, he found Andy waiting out front for him. It was impossible to tell if he had found out good news or bad, the robots expression never changed.

"Find out anything from Vincent?" Zane asked as he got out of his car.

"Yes, Vincent was quite helpful. He said that from what he's heard, they all seemed to disappear around 9 o'clock yesterday. If I remember correctly, that is somewhat late for Sheriff Carter to go for his morning run." Andy said. Zane nodded, knowing that whatever had caused this must have happened only minutes after he'd left Jo in the Sheriffs office. "Beyond that, Vincent says that no one in town has been acting strangely and that it appears only the five people you mentioned are missing. Any luck with the Global Dynamics projects?"

Andy's voice dragged Zane from his thoughts, he was thinking about how Jo probably didn't even have time to process his proposal let alone try to find him. He immediately felt guilty that he had been so angry with her and that he had wasted precious time in finding out what had happened to her.

"No, absolutely nothing. None of the projects I have access to have anything to do with making people disappear." Zane replied. "But I haven't looked into the section 5 stuff. I don't want to involve Mansfield until I have to."

"Maybe it's a kidnapping plot." Andy stated; his voice too merry for such a statement. Zane simply turned to stare at him in disbelief. He didn't care that Andy was a robot, how could he be so happy when there were people missing. Just then his phone started ringing. It was Zoë.

"Hey." Zane said as he answered the phone.

"Hey, find my dad yet?" Zoë asked; concern evident in her voice.

"Not yet hut we're still looking. You at the bus station?"

"They said the bus'll be there in a few minutes." Zoë answered, worry evident in her voice. Zane felt bad for her, she was only seventeen and she was living on the other side to the country on her own at college, and now her dad was missing.

"Ok, I'll lave now for the station, meet you there." Zane replied, then turned to Andy. "I'm going to pick up Zoë at the bus station, try to keep anything else that happens under control." Zane said as he got in his car and drove off, seeing Andy wave to him as he left. Zane drove in silence the entire way, thinking about what Andy had said, how maybe this was a kidnapping. He understood that kidnapping the Sheriff, the Deputy, the Mayor and the Head of GD was something a lot of people would want to do. The more he thought about it, he guessed that kidnapping Fargo was a big deal too. The guy had something to do with almost every major project going on in GD, much like Zane himself. Only in Zane's case, he was usually brought in when the project went wrong and someone needed to fix it before it destroyed the town. Now Zane was mad, if whoever had done this had thought to kidnap Fargo because he worked on a lot of projects, then why the hell didn't they kidnap him too? Zane stopped think about it as he pulled up to the station, seeing the bus pulling in behind him. Hopefully with him, Andy and Zoë working on the problem they could figure everything out before the DOD caught wind of what was going on.

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Please R&R, thanks.


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